Reciprocating slat conveyors in the patent literature are disclosed by my U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,285, granted Oct. 2, 1984, by my U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,469, granted Dec. 27, 1988, and by my U.S. Pat. No. 5,984,076, granted Nov. 16, 1999. A common denominator of the conveyors disclosed by these patents is that portions of their hydraulic cylinders are positioned in a vertical space defined top and bottom by the transverse floor frame beams.
My U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,469 presents a good description of how a three slat reciprocating slat conveyor system is build and works. The contents of this patent are hereby incorporated by reference into this document.
The following additional patents should also be considered by the purpose of putting the present invention into proper perspective relative to the prior art: U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,573, granted Nov. 23, 1993 to Olaf A. Hallstrom, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,267, granted Sep. 28, 1999 to Manfred W. Quaeck and Eric A. Marttila; and European Patent 0 721 901, filed Jan. 15, 1996, by Cargo Handling Systems B. V.
There is a need for a mounting frame for the hydraulic drive components which is strong and at the same time is relatively small and is made of lightweight materials. The primary object of the present invention is to fill this need, particularly in connection with reciprocating slat conveyors having three sets of conveyor slats.